There was a time when accounting was the boring college major that many people regretted signing. A barrage of numbers, statistics and spreadsheets was not too interesting.
The boy, times have changed! Thanks to recent accounting scandals in companies like Enron, there is a strong demand for accountants and auditors.
According to the Job Outlook 2005 survey, accounting comes out top as the most significant demand on college campuses. Forget the dot-com start-ups. Cleaning is the company's financial reports more inches
But perhaps accounting sexy?
"All the focus on accounting created a perception to students that accounting matters and is perhaps even sexy," says Ira Solomon, head of accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Colleges are scrambling to find teachers and professors of accounting more to replace those who retire. Not an easy task because there are twice as many openings as Academic Accounting candidates to fill them.
Here are the top 10 of the largest university in the demand of the companies surveyed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE):
1) Accounting
2) Electrical Engineering
3) Mechanical Engineering
Business Administration 4) / Management
5) Economy / Finance
Computer 6)
7) Computer Engineering
8) Marketing / Marketing Management
9) Chemical Engineering
10) Information Science and Systems
If you are good with numbers and a stickler for detail, you might consider accounting as a career. However, you may have to take a number and wait in line behind all the other would counter future.